


Utapaun Christening

by NuclearMcDuck



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: As lovey-dovey as Kylux gets, Doting Kylo Ren, Force Beast, Force Shenanigans (Star Wars), M/M, Mpreg, Pregnant Armitage Hux, playing fast and loose with canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28293759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuclearMcDuck/pseuds/NuclearMcDuck
Summary: Kylo Ren is determined to ensure that his children are the strongest creatures in the galaxy. Armitage Hux is willing to go along with it.Neither of them is ready for what that entails.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 78
Collections: Kylux Secret Santa 2020





	Utapaun Christening

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheSpaceCoyote](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceCoyote/gifts).



> Merry Holidays! A joyous secret santa to the lovely TheSpaceCoyote! ❤ (ɔˆз(ˆ⌣ˆc)
> 
> I hope that you enjoy this little fic (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡ I have loved your fics for ages, so I was honoured to draw you for this!!
> 
> Bon apple teat („ಡωಡ„)

Utapau was a system of contrasts.

On the one hand, some of the most advanced mining technology in the galaxy had been brought here by the empire only decades ago; otherwise, the planet was almost entirely without infrastructure, save for one piddling space port that existed solely to transfer the mined ores to the rest of the galaxy. It was completely desolate on the surface, the intense wind whipping the land into barren deserts, but the porous surface rock had absorbed the water into mighty underground oceans that spanned the entire planet. Sinkholes littered the surface, little havens away from the wind and the heat, opening up cool reservoirs that housed the primitive alien species that resided here.

 _This_ sinkhole, the one the First Order had landed an AAL-1971/9.1 Troop Transport next to, was _not_ inhabited by the native sapient species; this one was older, darker, and seemingly a great deal deeper. They had not sought out the spaceport, flying to this location directly from the _Steadfast_ , which still hovered reassuringly above them.

When Supreme Leader Kylo Ren had insisted on this “mission”, Hux had sent a team to scope it out; it was at least forty percent deeper than any other sinkhole they had record of, which brought little comfort to Hux as he imagined having to traverse all the way to its dank depths.

 _Oh_ , the things he did for love.

“When my Knights arrive, they will bring the Varactyls down, and we can ride them to the bottom of the pit,” Kylo said, pacing the length of the cabin in a clear display of nerves. “It should be easier from there.”

“I thought I said _no_ to the Varactyls,” Hux snapped, looking up from his datapad. Kylo had insisted that the fastest way down was on the backs of a species of large avarian creature native to the planet, which Hux had insisted was absolutely not going to happen, especially not when he was three months pregnant with twins.

“No,” Kylo said, as though nothing was wrong, “You said no to the _Dactillion_. I said if he don’t fly down on the Dactillion, we should ride the Varactyls down.”

“And I believe that _I_ said that if you made us _do_ that, I wouldn’t let your genitals _touch_ me until the twins are old enough to _talk_ ,” Hux grit back, hurriedly searching what the feth a “Varactyl” was on his datapad.

“And I replied, ‘ _how about until they’re born’_ , and you said not to bring it up again,” Kylo responded easily.

Though the Supreme Leader had taken to wearing a helmet again, Hux knew he was grinning smugly underneath.

The fact that he didn’t stick his leg out to trip Ren the next time he passed Hux on his relentless circuit of the cabin was a testament to Hux’s deep affection for him. Especially when it turned out that a Varactyl was a giant reptilian monster, and Kylo expected him to ride one for however long it took to reach the deepest, darkest pit on this disgusting planet.

“This force nonsense can’t be worth all of this trouble,” Hux muttered, glaring at the images of the – admittedly beautiful – reptilian monstrosities that he would spend his evening perched on.

“It _is_ ,” Kylo said emphatically, pausing in his pacing to stare at Hux with what must have been a meaningful look, under that hideously refurbished helmet. “The Skywalker line is strong; _my_ line is strong; if we can meet every milestone in strengthening our children’s abilities, perform every rite, and gain the blessing of every powerful force entity…”

Hux allowed Kylo a moment to imagine his little fantasy of raising the most powerful force users in the galaxy, only because it was quite sweet to see him so invested in their children. Not that he would admit that aloud, of course.

“… There is _nothing_ I won’t do for them,” Kylo said quietly, and Hux – _damn him!_ – couldn’t help but feel his heart thaw a little at the spectacle. “But we need to wait for the Knights to bring the _fething Varactyls!_ ”

And with that, Kylo resumed his frenetic pacing.

Hux sighed and pressed the button on the side of his seat to open the intercom to the pilot. “Another tea, if you please, captain.”

* * *

It took thirty minutes for the _Night Buzzard_ , Ren’s ridiculous little side ship where he kept his little followers when they weren’t trailing filth through First Order ships, to land next to the AAL Troop Transport.

It took an additional thirty minutes for Kylo to convince Hux to take a seat in the crude saddle affixed to the giant lizard creature, which looked a great deal more threatening in real life, versus the pictures on his datapad. Once he had been strapped in and wedged between Kylo, who sat behind him, and a knight who may or may not have been called _Apple-Lick_ in front of him, the creature started ambling towards the lip of the sinkhole.

“So, where is the path to the bottom?” Hux asked suspiciously, glancing between the edge of the crater, and the other knights, who had mounted their own Varactyls and were following them towards the pit.

Ren seemed to avoid answering, instead wrapping a cloth around them to shelter them from the winds, though the valley they were in was largely protected from them.

Hux watched the ledge loom closer, still unable to see a path – or even any kind of outcropping, or distinct road of any kind. It were as though they were approaching a cliff that went straight down. “I’d prefer nothing too steep, if we can avoid it.”

He leaned back against Ren, who wrapped his arms around Hux’s middle, hands crossing protectively over where his belly was starting to show, head resting on Hux’s shoulder. “This part is unavoidable – there’s no path,” He whispered in Hux’s ear, and Hux’s heart started pounding as the Varactyl suddenly sped up, its feet flying over the sand.

The edge loomed closer, and Hux had a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Ren-!”

He cut himself off with a scream as the lizard bounded over the edge, and it was, indeed, a sheer drop; straight down, into a massive black abyss, only sharp, rocky walls leading to a singular point of pitch black at the very bottom.

Hux screamed, and Kylo’s arms tightened around him - Hux’s vertigo was so strong that all he could do was clutch at Kylo’s forearms and pray they wouldn’t plummet straight down.

“You fething _idiot_!” Hux screeched at Kylo, closing his eyes, though his stomach still leapt as the lizard descended the wall with ease, defying gravity as it ran down the wall of the pit. “You fodder-eating, bantha-fething, idiot _nerf-herder!_ ”

Apple-leak was laughing while Ren tried to console him. “We’re fine, it’s fine, you’re fine-“

It took a few minutes for Hux’s heart to stop feeling like it was vibrating, but Ren was still hugging him close and whispering nonsense words of comfort. By now, the terror of falling had faded into a simmering rage at Ren’s lack of warning.

“Any other nasty surprises I should expect tonight, _Ren?_ ” Hux snapped, cutting off Kylo’s whispered nothings.

“… It should be fine from here,” Kylo said sheepishly, and Hux didn’t believe that for a second.

* * *

It took _three hours_ to reach the bottom on the Varactyls, and night had nearly fallen. Hux knew that whatever “ritual” was being performed had to be done at night, so he was hoping to get it over and done with. His back had, of course, flared up, old injuries already aggravated by his bulging belly, now further enflamed by sitting horizontal relative to the planet for the journey down.

… He tried not to think about the three-hour long climb back out of the pit.

Kylo helped pass him down to a few of his knights, who help Hux slide off the lizard and onto solid ground.

“So now all that’s left is to perform the ritual, correct?” Hux said, voice clipped, eyes roaming the area, though he could see little other than what the helmet-mounted lights on the Knights allowed him to see; so far down, it was pitch black.

Of course, he was not so fortunate. “No, we have to reach the chamber where… Where the ritual takes place,” Kylo said, pointing into void around them.

Hux was about to demand an explanation as to what _that_ meant – were they to be going _on foot_? – when one of the knights hurried to Kylo’s side holding out a datapad. _Oh, so they_ do _know how to use a datapad_ , Hux thought, annoyed. _They just_ choose _not to use them to file reports_.

The tightening of Kylo’s shoulders when he viewed the pad had Hux’s hackles raising, as well. “What’s wrong?” He demanded, heart dropping at the thought that their fleet might require their presence; they were _hours_ away. He should have agreed to the dactillions…

Kylo took in a deep breath of air, chest puffing up, before he turned the pad to Hux; it showed a live feed of one of the external cameras from the _Night Buzzard_ , but Hux couldn’t see anything wrong with the clear sky; no enemy ships, no flaming wreckage falling from the atmosphere. Just one of the multiple moons suspended in the sky.

“It’s a red moon,” Kylo said darkly.

The knights seemed to take this as their cue to weigh in, immediately falling into arguments about what their next move should be.

“Is it wise to continue?” Cardiac ( _?_ ) asked, grabbing the pad from his leader’s hands.

“It’s a blessing,” Insisted one that might be named _Vikram_. “Their power may be exponentially increased.”

Apparently, Usher disagreed. “That’s no guarantee; they might be cursed with a lack of control. The risk is great.”

“That’s ignoring the worst case scenario; drastically increasing their power, while destroying their ability to control it,” Said the one that Hux _knew_ was named Trudgeon, as Kylo had once made the knight write reports when Hux had insisted the _Night Buzzard_ should report to the First Order. They had been useless, of phenomenally poor quality, mostly rants on the stain that their enemies were on the galaxy, and needlessly detailed depictions of the knights’ sexual conquests. But Trudgeon _had_ signed his name, so Hux remembered him.

“It is a bad omen,” Kylo said quietly, and all of the knights fell silent, watching him. “Perhaps we should turn back.”

Hux blinked, eyebrows flying into his hairline, _furious_ at the thought of having to get back on the fething varactyl for another _three hours_. For _nothing_.

Hux was not a superstitious man.

When something went wrong in the First Order, there was a report filed on the incident, and the cause was identified; if possible, rectified. When something went wrong in the First Order, people were bloody _rational_ about it, and focused on _solutions_.

What they _didn’t_ do was stare at a perfectly natural phenomenon and act as though a moon appearing red suddenly changed an otherwise uneventful and average mission.

“It’s not an _omen_ , Ren,” Hux repeated firmly, one hand pressed against his swollen belly. The twins were heavy now on his exhausted spine, and even with the strap around his middle to hold them up like the world’s most unfashionable cummerbund, he was tired of standing. “The red moon is only ‘ _early_ ’ because the star charts for the Utapau system haven’t been updated in _centuries_ ; they didn’t take into account the over-mining and consequent destruction of _six moons_ would have on the orbits of the remaining ones. A lunar eclipse is perhaps the _least_ concerning thing happening tonight.”

Ren huffed, annoyed, and Hux was ready to _throttle_ him. He knew Ren wouldn’t retaliate with their twins inside him, so he was seriously considering giving into the urge; after all, Ren might not be so lenient once they were born.

“This ritual takes on certain… _Connotations_ , with a red moon,” Kylo explained, waving a dismissive hand at Hux as he turned to his knights.

Hux threw the datapad at the back of Ren’s helmet.

Ren stopped, shoulders tensed, and his knights fell silent. After a beat, he sighed, shoulders sagging, before turning to Hux. “ _What?_ ” He asked shortly.

“If it’s so terrible to have a lunar eclipse tonight, why don’t we just do your little… _Ceremony…_ tomorrow night? I, for one, would appreciate being allowed to sleep in something civilised.” Utapau was a miserable little planet; General Grievous may have found it suitable, but he was more droid than flesh, and didn’t suffer quite so much from the heat, the screeching wind overhead, or the terrible _dust_ and _dirt_ that seemed to cover every surface.

“Are you _stupid?_ ” One of Ren’s knights – _Cardio? Cadro?_ \- scoffed, and Hux couldn’t help but be amused by the way Ren’s helmet turned on the knight so quickly, and Cardio shuffled behind Trudgeon.

“Well, Ren?” Hux challenged, drawing Ren’s gaze back to himself. “ _Am_ I stupid?”

“… He means that the ritual can _only_ take place tonight, on the last day of the first trimester,” Ren said in a delightfully contrite tone.

“ _Whipped_ ,” Cardio muttered, loud enough to be heard, though everyone pretended otherwise.

Hux forced himself not to think too deeply on Kylo letting his band of merry murderers know exactly the date and time their children were _conceived_ , and instead tried to focus on a solution. “Well, can you change the ritual to take into account the… Moon?”

He felt like an idiot, saying the words out loud. He may as well have been talking about their _horoscopes_.

It didn’t help that Ren was looking at him as though he _were_ an idiot. “No. We’re supposed to be imbuing the children with power, but the _kind_ of power, and their level of _control_ over it, is more volatile and unpredictable under a red moon. There’s no way to change that.”

“Then can’t we just do this at the _next_ trimester?” Hux groused, shifting from sore foot to sore foot, unable to find relief.

Kylo’s answering sigh was answer enough.

“Fine, let’s just do it tonight, and get this _over_ with.”

Kylo seemed unwilling to push his luck, and meekly led them into a natural cavern. “It’s a short walk from here,” He muttered to Hux. “And if you want, I can make the knights carry you.”

Hux ignored him.

“Are you… Are you not concerned about the red moon?” Kylo asked hesitantly.

“Don’t talk to me about the fething red moon,” Hux said, laying a loving hand on Kylo’s shoulder.

* * *

The cave opened into a large antechamber which showed obvious signs of a sapient species having constructed it; runes were carved into the rock walls from floor to ceiling, and all of the walls had three-inch little holes carved out at uniform intervals, though all were pitch black.

Some ancient species had built this place.

“That’s where you will be for this,” Kylo said, gently nudging Hux towards a pit in the centre of the chamber.

Hux didn’t particularly care for it; it was reasonably shallow and easily accessible – the rock was cut down in gradually deeper concentric ovals, each about one foot deeper than the last, until the deepest oval in the centre, which was about seven feet in length. All of the symbols in the cave, he realised, were also radiating out from that central point.

Presumably, he was supposed to lie in the middle of that.

“And where will _you_ be?” Hux groused, eyeing the filthy patch of dirt he would lie on to appease his religious fanatic partner.

“We will surround you, but remain on the outermost ring.” The knights were already demonstrating by filing around the edges of the room, each standing close to the walls, spacing themselves evenly apart.

“And I prostrate myself in the dust at the lowest point,” Hux muttered, steeling himself for the ridiculous display he would no doubt be subjected to. He was willing to bet credits on ominous chanting, maybe the runes on the walls would glow, and perhaps some spooky sound effects to cap it all off.

“You take a place of honour at the centre,” Kylo corrected, bringing one hand to rub at the sore point of Hux’s back, right at the base of his spine; as Kylo’s hand rested there, he felt the pain ease, the muscles relaxing.

“You’re lucky you’re useful,” Hux sniffed, marching down towards the pit. “This better not take long,” He announced, voice ringing through the chamber. “This time tomorrow, I want to be in my throne, with a strong cup of tea.”

No one responded as Hux descends to the centre, and seated himself on the smooth rock at the bottom. It was seven feet in length, but only about three across. Still ample space, but he realised that he couldn’t lie on his stomach, and he always had trouble lying on his back. Ren’s magic had helped ease the pain; as long as this didn’t drag on too long, he should be fine.

He managed to lie down on his back without incident, hyper aware of the way his lumbar vertebrae and sacrum seem to click and shift as his weight settled.

He expected the knights to begin to… Hum, or sing, or say some magic words that he doesn’t understand. Perhaps for the room to light up in mystical glow. He absolutely _didn’t_ expect all of the knights to turn off their lights at once, shrouding the room in complete darkness. Was the dark side of the force really that literal?

More than that, the room was suddenly engulfed in silence; he hadn’t realised how loud it had been until all of the ambient sounds disappeared; no rattling breaths through vocoders, no shifts of heavy fabric – Hux could only hear his own breathing, his own heartbeat suddenly thunderously loud.

He didn’t know how long he was supposed to stay like this. He lay there for a few moments, but the pounding of his heart and the sound of his lungs drawing in air frayed his nerves and left him feeling like a nervous wreck.

He did Ren the courtesy of not moving from his position, but he was never told to be silent, and shouted, “Is it working?” In what he hoped was a commanding voice, and not – as it sounded to his own ears – high and quivering.

The words sounded wrong; the smooth rock had left all sounds reverberating, echoing each footfall and spoken word. Now his shouts sounded muffled, muted; like they were being yelled directly at sound-absorbing foam.

He knew he mustn’t panic, but knowing and doing were too different things. He had _children_ to worry about.

He comforted himself by imagining the hiding he was going to give Ren over this – he would never be involved in another force ritual again, powers be damned!

He took a deep breath before shouting again, but had the same results – a strange muteness to the sound, and no response from anyone else. Hells, he’d appreciate one of Trudgeon’s reports right now.

Deciding that he ought to move and try and find a way out resulted in a more concerning realisation.

He couldn’t move.

His arms wouldn’t lift, his legs wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t so much as get a toe to twitch.

He bit down the panic. _Assess the situation_. What could he move? He could breathe; he could yell. He could move his face. Could he turn his head?

No, apparently.

He tried opening and closing his eyes, wiggling his nose, waggling his eyebrows, and moving his lips and tongue; all that was within his ability.

He just couldn’t move anything else.

Alright; this might have been part of the force ritual… It might be _supposed_ to happen. If this is what Ren meant when he said there would be less control, he should have bloody well _said_ it. Couldn’t have let Hux be _prepared_ for anything that might happen!

His heart leapt out of his chest when a sudden roar of _something_ – an unbearably loud and horrifying sound – seemed to fill every available space. It was like the air being sucked out of a damaged ship and into space, the horrifying scream of precious oxygen being ripped into the endless void.

He screamed when his feet were touched by a frigid cold, or maybe a burning heat; it was impossible to tell, his nerves only screaming at him that it was _burning_. He tried to kick, but he only felt… Felt….

 _Water_.

The chamber was filling with water.

He could feel it now lapping at his calves and shoulders, pouring in from all sides, so cold that it turned his skin numb, even while it seemed to sear the tissue just beneath the surface, like being stabbed by thousands of needles that pierced his muscles, reaching his bones, breaking through to the marrow.

“ _Ren!_ ” He screamed, because this couldn’t be part of it, this couldn’t be right, couldn’t be his silly little ceremony…

He was going to die. Their children were going to die.

* * *

Kylo gave the signal, and the Knights of Ren extinguished their lights, submerging the cavern in complete darkness.

The creature here abhorred light, in all its forms; it could not appear in anything but pitch black. And it would be irresistibly drawn to a life and warm blood in the depressed plinth in the centre of this room.

Once they had it where they wanted it, they could bargain with it.

The creatures that had attained these mythical forms were old, and powerful, but they were rooted extremely deeply in the places where the force pulsed the most strongly. They had given up enough of their physical forms that they couldn’t manifest outside of extremely specific pockets of the universe.

It was one of the things that made them weak.

When Kylo ascended to such a status, he intended to have no such chain to weigh him in place.

For now, this creature – likely older than written language, and so strong that the air sung with it – would be best appeased by something that it was otherwise unable to do itself.

Thanks to Hux, Kylo had a wondrous stash of items that such a force beast would provide any service to possess.

He and his knights waited for the creature to reveal itself. The harshness of their breathing echoed through the cavern, and somewhere, he could hear water dripping.

Minutes passed, with only those sounds. Occasionally, he would hear the slight shuffle of a knight’s boot as they adjusted their weight.

Impatient, he called out, “Hux? Are you alright?”

There was no answer.

“Hux?” He repeated, throat tightening enough that his voice came out strangled.

He tried to leap forward, blind in the darkness, to reach Hux, but found that he couldn’t move; he was rooted to the spot. He heard his knights grunt, as though attempting the same.

“Something’s wrong!” Vicrul called, and that was when the entire cavern shook, dirt raining from the ceiling to land on Kylo’s face, and he could hear a might roar that seemed to shake the walls in its own right, as though a quake were tearing the planet apart.

But it wasn’t a quake.

He felt the water rush past his boots, though even the enormous force of the jets of water shooting past him wasn’t enough to move him from his spot; he and the knights were stuck fast in their places while the cavern was slowing flooding.

Hux was at the bottom of the chamber.

 _He was going to drown first_.

“I know you’re here!” He screamed into the void, staring sightlessly ahead. “Face me! Look at my mind and know that I speak the truth; _I have something that you want!_ ”

* * *

Hux could feel the water lapping at the shells of his ears, and soon his face would be submerged. He tried not to dwell on how deep in the planet they were, how the underground ocean seemed to be filling the cave, or how the terrible frigid water might be impacting his unborn children.

He didn’t bother not trying to curse Ren, however, calling him every name that he could think of, and then some. If he survived this, he was going to make Ren do… Well, something humiliating. He would have to think of a suitable punishment when we wasn’t being slowly submerged in what felt like below-freezing temperature water.

He still tried to make his body move, against all hope; in his mind, he was thrashing, practically convulsing in desperation to wrench himself free.

His physical body remained inert.

As the water crept up to his ear canal, he tried to form some sort of link with the children in his belly. Weren’t they force sensitive? Could they break him from this hold? The scans they’d had done showed that their brains and spinal cords had begun developing normally, and their heartbeats had been strong… By now, they must even have fingernails.

 _I had names for you_ , he though despondently. _Sloane and Phasma_.

“ ** _Lovely._** ”

Hux’s eyes snapped open, though he was unable to see in the darkness. “Who’s there?” He asked the empty air, fear somehow making his freezing body feel colder. “Identify yourself!”

He felt, more than heard, a rumbling chuckle, ribs vibrating with it. It wasn’t quite a voice… Almost a sort of… _Ripple_ , that his mind seemed to turn into words.

“ ** _I am what you seek._** ”

“I seek to leave this place and never return!” Hux cried, willing his limp body to move.

“ ** _Not yet, Starkiller._** ”

* * *

“ _ALL OF YOU!_ ” Kylo shrieked at the knights. “Focus on _HUX_ – keep the water _AWAY_ from him!”

He didn’t even know if they could hear him, over the roar of the churning maelstrom, tens of litres pouring into the cavern every second.

“I… I _CAN’T_!” Trudgeon, the knight closest to him, yelled back; even with him so close, Kylo could barely hear him.

There was only one being here with the power to protect Hux, it seemed.

“Creature of the Utapau ocean!” Kylo screamed, throat burning with the volume of his voice, vocal chords straining. “Release my husband _NOW!_ ”

Nothing changed.

How long had the water been flowing in, now? Was Hux already submerged? Had he already drowned?

“I have something you want; release him unharmed, and our children, and it’s _YOURS_!”

He didn’t even know if it could hear him. What if it gave him Hux’s corpse, and they had to cut his underdeveloped children out to incubate them? What if they couldn’t get to the surface in time, and they perished inside their father?

“You must have felt the Hosnian system’s demise; Illum ate their sun, and spewed it at them; her kyber crystals soaked up that power, and then absorbed the shockwave of trillions of lives extinguishing simultaneously!”

Kylo tried to light his sabre, but it wouldn’t ignite; the light would have banished the creature, and they could flee – but it was too strong, and he knew it was what was preventing his sabre from lighting. Even if it hadn’t banished the creature, he would have cut off his own legs if it meant that he could crawl to Hux. _Please be alive_.

He ripped his helmet off his head so viciously that he tore out a chunk of hair. “Illum’s kyber crystals have been floating through space, so dark they absorb all light, impossible to see, but we have teams collecting it – give him back to me, give our children back, and we will give it to you! Kyber crystal so dark that light cannot escape it, darker than even the ruins of Alderaan!”

There was no response.

“ _DAMN YOU, BEAST!_ ” His throat seared with the strength of his screams. “ _I’LL DESTROY YOU!_ ”

* * *

Hux was shocked into silence for a moment. The water had now reached his cheeks, threatening to spill into his mouth. He hadn’t thought about his Arkanisian biology for a long time, but he flexed his throat and the cilia at his ribs in the vain hope that he still retained this one eccentricity.

“How do you know that name?” He demanded, even while part of his mind was focused on waggling his long-unused gills. They seemed to open, sucking water into them, but he still gasped with his mouth while he could, feeling the rising water lapping at his lips.

“ ** _Starkiller. You have come here to bless the little lives in you._** ”

“Yes!” He cried, “Do it! Finish it so I can leave!”

“ ** _Am I to bless all three?_** ”

_… Three?!_

It was the last thought he had as he was submerged.

He tried to call out, to question what the creature meant, but his mouth only filled with water; Hux was quick to seal his lips and swallow the water, resisting the urge to breathe through his mouth and nose.

He had to rely on his vestigial respiratory organs, and hope that they were enough to keep him from asphyxiating before this nightmare was over.

“ ** _Answer me._** ”

Did the creature not understand that he couldn’t speak when completely submerged? Was it so stupid as to not realise that he was flesh and blood, and not a phantasmal horror?

“ ** _I am of the force_** ,” it corrected, voice ringing clearly inside his head.

It could hear his thoughts?

“ ** _Yes_** ,” it answered, and Hux detected something akin to amusement. He wasn’t sure how he detected it, but he felt with certainty that it was there. And he didn’t appreciate it.

If this thing didn’t let him go, the First Order would destroy the planet from orbit. _That’s a promise_ , he thought viciously.

The creature gave another rumbling, surreal chuckle, the water vibrating with it around Hux.

“ ** _I do not doubt it, Starkiller._** ”

_You ought to feel afraid of what my Order can do to your pathetic planet!  
_

“ ** _You ought to consider what I can do for your brood._** ”

His children. Yes, that was why they were here.

Now that the threat of imminent death seemed to have passed, his head started to clear.

_You said there were three? There are only two._

“ ** _Do not doubt me. There are three. Even if the littlest is doomed to die._** ”

_Die?!_

Hux hadn’t endured the wrath of his medical team, empowered as they were by the Supreme Leaders orders to ensure Hux was in peak condition, foisting diet and exercise and fething _sleep regimen_ on him for weeks, only to have one of his children _die_. The amount of work he _hadn’t_ done while he was forced to sleep for at least five hours each night would _not_ be sacrificed in vain.

 _Save it_ , he thought, pouring as much vitriol and fire into the thought as he could summon. _All three of them are to live_.

“ ** _You do not make demands._** ”

 _I am the Grand Marshall of the First Order. I am the husband of the Supreme Leader of the First Order. I was the youngest general of the First Order, and the lead engineer on Starkiller. I do not request, or beg; I was_ born _to command_. _To_ demand.

Again, that ripple of amusement. He was ready for Kylo to destroy this creature, already.

“ ** _You are a delight._** ”

_I wish I could say the same for you._

“ ** _Very well. Tell your wayward Jedi to provide an additional tonne, and you will have your third child as well._** ”

 _… Tonne of what?_ Hux wondered, before quickly adding the thought, _And the third child is to be blessed as well_.

“ ** _Kylo Ren will know what. Tell him. I accept your bargain. Three blessed children, though the last will contain something even I cannot know._** ”

 _What does that mean?! What did you_ do _to it?_

How could it not _know_ what it was doing to them?

“ ** _It is not the littlest one’s first trimester; he was made after. And the Blood Moon makes his gift unpredictable._** ”

 _If I hear one more word about the fething red moon, I will destroy this entire system_. _Why are there so many arbitrary rules just to give a few foetuses a bit more power to strangle subordinates and destroy consoles with?_

“ ** _Tell your Ren that he is lucky to have you on his side._** ”

_He will be lucky to have me on side after this debacle!_

“ ** _Go now._** ”

* * *

Kylo felt it in the air the instant it changed; the flow of water abruptly stopped, and the sound of seven light sabres igniting simultaneously punctured the sudden silence.

Even the dim glow of the sabres seemed to stab at their eyes, but Kylo didn’t bother blinking the afterimages away as he stumbled forward towards the centre of the room.

He leapt toward the middle, plunging into frigid, waist-deep water; instantly most of his body felt numb, but as his eyes adjusted, he could see that the water was crystal clear; a few metres below him in the water lay Hux, eyes open, still on the floor at the deepest part of the cavern.

“ _ARMITAGE!_ ” He wailed, reaching out with the force to drag his husband’s body to him.

The knights had started turning on their helmet lights, and Hux’s body was illuminated eerily as he was pulled to the surface, skin glowing under the harsh illumination, eyes wide and body limp.

Kylo ran forward and met the body as it breach the surface, cradling Armie in his arms, grabbing his jaw roughly and tipping his head to the side, opening his mouth to drain the water –

No water spilled from his mouth.

He could hear his knights shuffling to the cave’s entrance, whistling for the Varactyls to come to them, even though they would struggle to fit in the narrow caves that lead to the chamber.

He didn’t care. He held Armie’s head out of the water by cradling him against his chest with one arm, while he ripped off the glove of his free hand with his teeth. Armie wasn’t breathing.

He pressed his bare forefingers into Armie’s neck, feeling for a pulse.

Feeling. Feeling for a pulse…

What would he do without him? How would he lead? Who in the galaxy could ever hope to fill the roles that Grand Chancellor Armitage Hux had played? Military leader, politician, strategist, physicist, engineer. Husband.

And the role he never got to play.

 _Father_.

“P-please…” He begged through chattering teeth, the warmth of his tears searing on his freezing cheeks.

“Put him on the varactyl,” Ushar said urgently, leading the creature into the cavern. “We’ll take him to the surface.”

“It’s too…” Kylo couldn’t say it. Couldn’t truly bring himself to believe it.

Nonetheless, he pulled Armie’s body out of the water, carried him towards the Varactyl on legs numb with the cold, and heart numb with-

Suddenly, Hux convulsed in his arms, gasping horrifically and slamming his forehead directly into Kylo Ren’s nose.

His face exploded with pain, but he only fell to his knees, somehow managing to hold onto Armie even as he continued to struggle, now flailing his limbs in his attempts to get away.

“ _I’LL DESTROY THIS ENTIRE FETHING SYSTEM!_ ” Hux screeched, twisting his entire body to escape Ren’s grasp, a stray fist meeting the broken remains of his nose and causing him to falter and drop Hux properly.

Hux squealed in shock as he hit the hard rock floor of the cavern, immediately pushing himself up to his knees, monomolecular blade out and at the ready. “ _I’LL_ -“

Kylo leapt on him, grabbed his face with both hands, and kissed him firmly on the mouth.

Hux stabbed him in the ribs with the blade, but Kylo only held him in place with the force, preventing Hux from pulling the blade out and stabbing him again.

Kylo broke the kiss, pressing his cheek to Armitage’s, heedless of the blood pouring from his nose wetting them both as he nuzzled him. “Never do that again,” He begged, broken.

Hux remained still, even when Kylo’s force hold on him faded. He let go of the blade, leaving it sticking out of Kylo’s side, and used the hand to push Kylo by the shoulder, just far back enough that he could see his face.

He did a double-take at the blood, but otherwise, he seemed relieved. “Kylo,” He said softly. Even pale and wet and freezing and with a face half-smeared with Kylo’s blood, he was the most beautiful thing Kylo had even seen.

“ _A-Armie_ ,” Kylo whispered, voice barely recognisable between the hoarseness and the nasal quality from his damaged nose, and his chattering teeth.

Armie leaned forward and kissed Kylo on the forehead, somehow seeming supremely unaffected by the cold. He settled back on his knees, face only inches from Kylo’s, and tucked a stray lock of damp hair behind Kylo’s ear. “If we ever do this again,” He said softly, “I will slice your cock off and make you eat it.”

Kylo laughed and hugged him.

* * *

The knights stripped what they could from their clothes – which turned out to be quite a _lot_ of fabric – to wrap around Hux and Kylo as they made their ascent, their wet clothes slung over Kuruk’s shoulder.

Kylo suffered from being horizontal while his nose dripped blood, but otherwise, the climb out of the pit was uneventful. Armitage even managed to somehow fall asleep for a portion of it, feeling wrung out after the long night.

It was only after they finally breached the lip of the sinkhole, finally sliding off the back of the Varactyl and finally, _finally_ being strapped into medical beds on the AAL Troop Transport that Hux remembered one of the important points brought up by the creature.

“Kylo, the creature said something to me during the… Ritual,” Hux said urgently.

Kylo’s head whipped around, eyes wild, though most of his face was covered by a comical bacta device to fix his broken nose.

“What?” Kylo demanded, voice still raspy and weak. “Are the twins…? Did it _work?_ ”

“Oh, yes, they’ll get their little powers,” Hux waved dismissively, somehow managing not to snap at Kylo. _All this for_ _some force nonsense_ …

Kylo’s eyes lit up, and Hux knew he was smiling.

“But they’re not twins,” Hux said smugly, revelling in the way that Kylo’s face fell, brow furrowing.

“Huh?” He said stupidly.

“We’ll need to think of another name,” Hux sighed, watching realisation dawn in Kylo’s eyes.

“…Wait,” Kylo said slowly. “You already picked names?”

“Well, they’re my children. So yes, I named the first two. But it turns out, there’s one more.”

Kylo paused to consider this. “Can I name the third one?”

Hux sighed theatrically, crossing his arms over his chest. “I suppose so,” He conceded, heart bursting at the starry-eyed look Kylo gave him.

“Anakin,” Kylo said joyously.

“Absolutely not, try again,” Hux snapped back.

* * *

True to the creature’s word, all three of them were born alive and well. Sloane, the eldest girl, Phasma, her identical twin, and little Anakin, their baby brother, though he was technically born at the same time.

Kylo had managed to convince Hux to do the second and third trimester rituals, but only after Kylo had shared every detail, and Hux had his people look over the plans and assist in risk management.

Sloane’s first manifestation of the force happened at age two, pulling the palace cat towards her when her imperial mistress, Millicent the third, attempted to flee the princess’ pudgy little groping hands.

Phasma’s first manifestation happened at twelve months, pushing her father’s hand away when he tried to remove the milk teat from her mouth.

Anakin, the red moon child, had floated above his crib in the delivery room.

“Does that normally happen?” Hux had asked, gesturing at the floating baby.

“Must be the blood moon,” Kylo said sagely.

“That reminds me, we need to destroy Utapau.”


End file.
